Life without food; fasting on water! page

[Gorbag]

Some people like to do rather extreme things; like doing three consecutive fast of 40 days for religious reasons, as the woman in the videos below. Yes, it is extreme, and weight loss can in most cases be done with less sacrifice, but sometimes common dieters can learn something from those “nuts” – the will to conquer hunger and cravings - going for long periods without any solid food! Dangerous? Probably not if you have enough fat to spare, drinking plenty of water and don’t have any serious medical issues. I would never have done it myself – a PSMF diet would be a better solution for me - but after all; fat is nothing else than food stored in our body to help us to go periods without food, so fasting is very primal even if somebody do it for religious reasons:

Before:



And after third consecutive fast:

[JoanieL]

She needs to say, "God" a few more times. And have a few more children.

Honestly, there are healthier examples of water fasters and information on water fasting. Nowhere in those two videos did she mention medical supervision, but I guess God watched over her.

I agree that water fasting can be another tool. But if my first exposure to it had been godgirl above, I'd think it was for crackpots.

[Tribal Rob]

It's for crackpots, why why didn't you say so....I'M IN

[Gorbag]

Fasting is a well known tool for thousands of years among religious people, so being a religious crackpot absolutely seem to do wonders if you plan to live without food for a while…

[Kochin]

To be honest, she doesn't strike me as a true crackpot. Outside normal eating practices? Yes. Devoutly religious? Yes. Crackpot? Not quite.
Hell, I want about 8 children myself and, if I have the money, there won't be that much time between them; I am devout (albeit to my own faith) and all of us would be (or have been!) called "nuts" for our eating habits. Not so quick to judge, people.

It's interesting to watch, informative and, as she's doing it for faith (not to lose weight, make a point or "prove" it can be done), chances of her having fully stuck to it are pretty good.

[Paleobird]

I think the most useful things about fasting are

1)Autophagy. This is your body's cellular level housecleaning.

2)Getting you in touch with your TRUE hunger signals. Hopefully later you will be able to know the difference between real physiological hunger and just feeling "peckish" or eating out of boredom or habit.

3)Getting you past that mental block that says, "If I skip lunch, the world is going to come to an end." When you realize that you can go several days without food, skipping unneeded meals becomes no big deal.

Unfortunately, I'm an atheist so if I want to fast I have to find my own strength instead of calling on the lord. Not a problem.

I do think that 40 days was a little extreme for her given how anorexic she looked in the last video. I am planning on doing a 7-10 day fast sometime soon.

[Ayla2010]

I guess good on her for going that long, but I don't think she needed to do the third. I wish she said how much she weighed in the third video, but I think she looks awful.

And I guess her body didn't get the memo about starvation mode hey

[drssgchic]

I'm most disturbed that she's doing this with a six-week-old child. Either the kid's on formula or it's going to start starving with her since her body will run out of nutrients at some point.

[Gladmorning]

Bahahahaha ayla!

[j3nn]

"Starvation mode" is really just varying metabolic conservation. It doesn't mean no weight loss, it means a reduction in metabolic rate compared to the average, which often translates to harder-to-lose, but not impossible. e.g., a 135-lb female that maintains on 1,900 calories but a 160-lb female with a compromised metabolic rate that maintains on 1,800 calories. True starvation will always result in weight loss, but the rate at which it is lost may slow down significantly. It's quite simple, really.

The metabolism down regulates in any deficit, but I think for long-term wellness you'd want to pay close attention to any signs of metabolic derangement and take precautions to prevent any possible unintended negative side effects.